Stories as an emancipatory tool in research

Abstract

This chapter is about the research I was engaged in during my doctoral studies tilled, 'Reading stories of inclusion: Engaging with different perspectives towards an agenda for inclusion'. This work became the process of not only identifying the complex dynamics and snags surrounding the 'inclusion' agenda I was engrossed in, but also mapped out a way forward. The core of my research, as will be explained in this chapter, lies in the stories which were written and redirected back to the varied contexts I was involved in at the time of carrying out the research. Conversely, this scenario is complemented by stories I collated from disabled activists and parents of disabled people through an enmeshment of auto-ethnographic and narrative enquiry. The major research questions in this work stem from a personal engagement, but not as an 'own' experience, as I always maintained my position as an 'outsider' throughout the inclusive education debate. In other words my research was based on two straightforward problematized issues: 'What is 'inclusion'?' and 'How are disabled people at the margins experiencing 'inclusion'?'